The day after being shut out by the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Homeland executive producers Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa were cautiously optimistic, up since 4:30 a.m. wondering what was going to happen with Thursday's Golden Globe nominations. The duo eventually learned of the news when they opened up their computers to a gaggle of very nice emails.

"I'm stealing Alex's line but he said, 'Today is a lot better than yesterday,' " Gordon said with a laugh of the Showtime series' three nominations, including best drama. "Alex and I both learned to lower our expectations and let any good news be a surprise."

Landing on several critics' best of 2011 lists, the duo hope the nominations will help boost the show ahead of Sunday's 90-minute "roller coaster" season finale. "I think that the HFPA has put us on the map in a significant way, people can now say, 'Oh my God, that show is now recognized as being among the best shows on television right now and that reaches a lot of people," Gansa said. "Hopefully we'll get a lot of people tuned in for Sunday's finale and more people watching the episodes as they run on Showtime."

Competing with the likes of American Horror Story, Boardwalk Empire, Boss and Game of Thrones, the duo noted that their sympathies go out to the Breaking Bad team, which was shut out in the Globes' drama category.

"It was our turn to be disappointed yesterday and it's probably Breaking Bad's turn to be disappointed today," Gansa noted. "It's so subjective, all this stuff. You can't take it personally. You hope for the best and live with it if it doesn't happen.

While Gansa noted that Gordon has to go back "the glue factory" -- work on NBC's upcoming Jason Isaacs drama Awake -- the duo plans to celebrate in typical fashion, catching up later over with cigars and scotch.

As for the Sunday's finale, Gansa was mum, only warning viewers to "put their seatbelts on."